Monday, January 23, 2006

Is Daya Nayak really a criminal?

The recent press coverage given to the so-called "crimes" of discredited encounter specialist Daya Nayak has made me rather lose my pride as being part of the great Indian system. This – is my retaliation to what I see as injustice.

Who is this Daya Nayak? Rising from a 9yr old chaiwalla to feared supercop - no easy task, even in the city of dreams. From working odd jobs, to being the guy who shot 84 blood-thirsty criminals and then on to being the man who everyone looks upon as a criminal...

The newspapers are busy holding his trial, before the court has had any say. Shall we also consider his various crimes then?

In 2003, a small time guy called Ketan Tirodkar, who had earlier worked briefly with the Afternoon Courier, filed a case against Daya Nayak in the stringent MCOCA court. He said Nayak was a part of a conspiracy to shunt out top police officials who were hostile to the cause of the underworld and that he had taken money from the don Chhota Shakeel to facilitate the same. Tirodkar was part of this supposed deal and guilt had driven him to confession. Tirodkar is a known Shakeel man. He has been arrested and is currently out on bail. Because of the numerous cases that this criminal filed, raids have been carried out at Daya Nayak’s home. Not once, but many times, though the ACB never found anything.

Since the last 2 weeks the sleazeball tabloid Mumbai Mirror has been printing stories about Nayak’s disproportionate assets. His net worth is now 100 crore[from the earlier rather modest 4 crore], he owns a hotel in Dubai, has a place in Switzerland and keeps going out of the country all the time – to Canada and America and God knows where else. He owns many properties in India. He owns a fleet of luxury buses in Karnataka. He owns dozens of companies. His wife is the director of several of these. Inspite of being super rich he continued to work a job that paid him a measly 12000 a month and continued to stay in a tiny flat. And with all his extra money he built a school in his home-town, probably because he ran out of ways to spend his extra cash... I didn’t know what was more shocking, the Mirror’s allegations or the fact that the Mirror’s readers responded with things like he should be publicly punished and put to death for his crimes.

Can we please have real news? Can we have some hard facts, maybe a reaction from the man involved? No, the media says we may not, because we’re all imbeciles and don’t understand the delicate balance of the sources and the media. A balance preserved by exchange of hard cash, at least in the case of the great and illustrious Times of India who have been known to print for pay. So, what’s the real story?

Daya Nayak shot down 84 gangsters and arrested over 300 in his years with the police force. He was a man doing his job, for which he was highly praised, given monetary rewards and many awards. He became famous. The men he killed were from all factions of the Mumbai mafia – Dawood’s men, Chhota Rajan’s men, Chhota Shakeel’s men, Ashwin Naik’s men, Arun Gawli’s men – there was no don who didn’t take losses. And he wasn’t alone.
Other encounter specialists, like Pradeep Sawant, Vijay Salaskar, Sachin Vaze and Pradeep Sharma were all equals in the encounters. But like one of our better newspapers pointed out, none of these remain in the crime branch with the exception of Pradeep Sharma. They’ve been transferred, given desk jobs, arrested or in Nayak’s case, are undergoing the process of being arrested. Why’s Pradeep Sharma still there? Is he a better police officer? Or were these others the betters, and got shunted out - paying the price of being better men? Or is Pradeep Sharma better than the others, at licking ass? Pradeep Sawant[former DCP] and R.S.Sharma[former CP] – both great officers when they were working - were gotten out of the way through the Telgi case. That surprised me too – people in power willing to believe a criminal’s word rather than the police officers who put him in jail. It is the same scenario all over again – Tirodkar’s word against Nayak’s.

Does it seem possible that a man like Chhota Shakeel, known for his vengeful attitude, would pay the man who shot and killed so many of his close associates? The same Shakeel who waged war with Chhota Rajan, onetime colleague and pal and killed so many of his men after the Mumbai blasts and riots in 1993? If he wanted to destroy the police force, he would first destroy the man he hated the most - that being Daya Nayak. Which is precisely what he is doing, using Tirodkar as a dummy front and alleging Nayak’s nexus with Shakeel. What kind of man believes this sort of cock and bull story unless he’s been paid to believe it?

The human mind is fickle. What we do not have, we crave; what we cannot have, we hate. The current crop of higher police officials who are now busy throwing stones at Daya Nayak once sang his praises. They promised to protect him from the underworld that posed a constant threat to his very life. And they did - they gave him armed guards, good vehicles and all the support he needed. But then, Daya Nayak got famous. He earned money for killing all those bad guys, and loads of it too. Of course, now the media has forgotten that many of the men that he shot had rewards on their heads to the tune of 5-10 lacs each. So this man was rich, famous and almost a celebrity. He soon became a celebrity, with 2 Hindi movies and 1 Kannada movie being made based on his life. He received the Karnataka Hriday Samrath Award, the highest award granted by the Karnataka Govt. How many policemen get this kind of fame? Isn’t it logical that Nayak’s success made these men see red, and they became insanely jealous of their junior, now a man perhaps too big for his boots... Pasricha, M.N. Singh, A.N.Roy, Dilip Sawant – none of these could avoid the green-eyed monster. The officers investigating Daya Nayak through the Anti Corruption Bureau are all Nayak’s contemporaries, and none of them have so much as been in a headline before being involved in the his case. They are neither rich nor famous. If they were looking for a chance to pull him down, this is it. If they were looking for fame, they’ve now hit paydirt. It seems as if the raids that they have been carrying out are only to harass the man and his family, rather than any attempt to find the truth.

There’s also Pradeep Sharma. How does he figure here? He was the one under whom Nayak trained and matured as a police officer. But now he has gone out of his way to attack Daya Nayak and his character. Have the two had a fall-out after the erstwhile pupil far outshone his mentor? Or is it something else?

Now to the media. The premier newspaper of India, ToI, has behaved in an utterly despicable manner. First, by allowing their tabloid to carry unverified stories about Nayak and then themselves making allegations that border on the ridiculous. It would be funny if it weren’t so terrible. We do not expect this of our newspapers. A flat in Switzerland? Really?? At least they could have said a bank account, that would have been a little more believable. A fleet of luxury buses operating within Mangalore, that coming from the Indian Express. Midday saying Daya Nayak’s worth 100 crores. Please, have some respect for the intelligence of your readers. Give us the usual rubbish that you pass off as news, but don’t give us slimy rotten rubbish, don’t venture into serious news when you have no idea what it’s about. The kind of stories the Mirror and Midday have carried; it made me think they are on Tirodkar’s payroll. He’s a criminal for god’s sake. Don’t glorify him. Daya Nayak is, or was, a good cop. He made Mumbai safe again. If you can’t come out in his support, don’t tear him down at least!

Once upon a time, he was the media’s golden boy. He made the bad guys disappear, he looked great and photographed well, he was nice to the journos – he was everyone’s favorite story. But show a man a hole, and he will finger it to make it bigger. That is what the media has been doing now. Glorifying Tirodkar, interviewing him constantly, letting him accuse whoever he wants, allowing him to drag anybody he pleases into his slime, not editing his rubbish – what has become of the days when we had real news? When reporters reported facts, not opinions? Especially of criminals?!

The Mirror said the ACB raided Nayak because of its reports. But the Mirror said he’s worth 4 crores. All the ACB found was evidence on paper worth 41 lacs. So where’s all his 4 crores now? How much is 4 crores? Maybe 2 small sea-facing flats in south Mumbai. It’s not a lot of money, it only seems to be so. Considering that the man shot 84 gangsters, each with rewards on their heads of upto 10 lacs, even if he shared his money with the other members of the team, he’s made at least 84 lacs through his reward money alone! This was years ago, and with the right investments, he could have been a millionaire many times over by now. Is investing wrong? Is making wealth wrong? If it is, why aren’t all the rich guys in India in jail today? If Nayak was really that rich, he wouldn’t be doing the thankless job of being a policeman even today. He wouldn’t be living in a tiny house. If he were greedy for money, he would have kept everything he got for himself, rather than building a government school in the tiny village that he was born in, because he doesn’t want the children there to walk like him to a school 2 hours away and then stop studying because it was only a primary school. But rather than praise the man, we suspected him of laundering ill-gotten money! How low can we stoop?

Dragging his wife into the story, dragging his friends in and accusing them of protecting him... isn’t that what friends are supposed to do? By raiding any man who is even remotely associated with Daya Nayak, what does the ACB wish to prove? That to know someone is a crime? That to be friends with a man, and go to the aid of that man in times of trouble is against the law? Is it now illegal to be good human beings?

Daya Nayak’s real crime is that he was good at his job. Worse still, he was far better than anyone else around him. Even worse, he was proud of it.

I am ashamed to be part of a system that rewards ability with punishment. I am ashamed of a system which has not protected Daya Nayak from the harassment of a criminal. I am ashamed of our police force who seek to harm its own and wish to arrest a good man on grounds of jealousy and envy. I am ashamed of our laws, which can allow this to happen, which are being abused to destroy this man who almost gave his life to uphold them, which have been misused to turn their enforcer into a disgraceful caricature. I am ashamed of our media, who call Daya Nayak an “on the run” absconder, when he’s nothing of the sort, and none of whom have come forward with a good word for him.

A young citizen of this nation, I feel nothing but guilt to be part of a people who glory in villainy and grind down true greatness to dust under their heels, only because they cannot equal it.

If he is a criminal, then justice will of course be done, but let him not be destroyed because no one has the courage to speak out in his support. If you believe in him, lets reach out in support, speak out and let others know of the truth. Let us at least give him a chance to speak, to show that he is not guilty of the crimes he has been accused of, before we sentence him to a figurative death in a trial by our minds.

30 comments:

Sandgroper said...

You asked me for a comment on my blog. So here goes.

Daya Nayak is not a criminal. Till he is proven guilty, he is and will remain innocent, no matter what the media says.

That said, I don't quite agree with the logic that he made all the money with the encounter prizes. Simply because the charge is visible wealth appears disproportionate to his known sources of income. The government knows "known income" through his tax forms. If he had nothing to hide, he should have disclosed it. Simple as that. The fact that he hid it, suggests (note: suggests, not proves) he did not want people to know about it. I agree with A P's logic. If you don't want to get caught, why not just go down the correct path and follow the rules?

PunkPrincess said...

What do you do when you have been following the correct path, but people who wish to destroy you make you out to be the worst kind of scum?
The point that we are all missing here is that there may be malafide persons at work who are hell bent on destroying Nayak, one way or the other.
To answer a p, I have no desire of justifying his "heroism". In our country a small time actor who plays some guy who dies and comes back to life in an awful tv serial becomes a hero, becomes famous and develops a fan following more than even the men who discovered DNA. We live in a country mostly made up of fools; it is upto us, those who understand more than the others do - to not fall for media propaganda and not tear down a man simply because there is a nexus who wishes to do so.

Admin said...

That was my point, that the kind of disproportionate income that he is alleged to have is quite proprotionate if the returns on his rewards money were to be taken into account. And that the paper that once idolised him is now demonising him on the basis of some facts that will hold no godd in the courts of law.

Anonymous said...

Daya Nayak is a friend of mine.He is a dedicated Police officer.I am an ex-Police officer from Karnataka.In one of the sensational murder cases of Karwar which I was investigating,Daya Nayak offerred tremendous help to me.But for his help I would not have arrested the killer & solved the murder case.The killer is still in Jail. I received The Chief Minister's Gold Medal for the case.Thanks Daya Nayak.

I oppose the way he is being tried by the media.Honour is acquired over a period of time and the media can undo it just with one stroke.Let the law take its own course.

Anonymous said...

By the way, the case is about disproportionate income, of some 41 lakhs.

And I haven’t heard of any cases of encounter- whatever be the perception of many- its a cold blooded murder or whatever-that it has been fake or someone not wanted by the police has been killed.

Intrigued by the rise in encounters in 2001 I had done a research on the subject and to my horror found that most killed were wanted, or were history sheeter, and had some nefarious connection.

And more startling this piece of information would be - that every year the Mumbai Police makes some 75000 arrests, and you would be surprised that the conviction rate is a mere 6 percent. What does that reflect? The police chase the criminals for months together, gather information and then try and arrest them and bring them to justice. And 94 percent go scot free!!!

I should quote a former Jt Commissioner of Police here, who said "Extraordinary situations require extraordinary measures”. Encounters were just that. And behind each of the encounter there has been meticulous planning, and months of chase and preparations and the specialists are better equipped to handle the situation when they take the underworld elements by surprise.

So, those who live by the gun are well prepared to fight it out for these specialists are trained for it and they are better equipped.

If people walk safely on the streets of Mumbai its thank to the officers like Nayak.

Anonymous said...

I think i have to agree with andrenaka that these rogue cops need to be reined in. This seems an effective way of doing so. Obviously the govt. cant accuse him of murder - they tacitly supported him - thats why they are going after him on a much lesser charge, for which he should be grateful. Its because the govt. machinary is so ineffective, that these sort of quick fix methods are resorted to. Its an extremely dangerous method. It could very easily lead to the death of civilization and rule of law. Its also a sad reflection on the judicary that while they can take suo motto cognizance of petty issues like damage to the Taj Mahal by pollution(!!!), they have chosen to remain silent spectators to murderous bloodshed THAT HAS BEEN SANCTIONED BY COPS AND POLITICIANS TO COVER UP THEIR OWN INADADQUACIES. It dont matter if the persons murdered in cold blood by these state sanctioned excutioners were guilty. They had not been tried by due process of law.Most of them were not murderers, they were petty goons who 99% of the time, didnt back up their threats with action. Many were down right innocent, many were cases of mistaken identity Yup, first the delicate sheen on the taj damaged by those pesky industries then maybe stuff like Murder...but murder is SO passe, SO not news, SO...yawn. And a good nights sleep is had by all.
Shudder.
Sigh.
And hope you're not next.

PunkPrincess said...

andrenaka, its difficult to figure how anyone can be as narrow minded as you. while you express disbelief at mr. rajeev, you yourself go on to "assure" us of how the killings are people wanting to bump off their girlfriend's husbands. on what basis do you make these assumptions?

have you ever spoken to any of these encounter specialists? do you know how much work goes behind an encounter? you clearly don't. and when you don't know these things, how can you pronounce a man inefficient?

do you know that cops get killed in your "fake" encounters? just because they're usually constables does not mean they're not cops! how on earth can you say that these encounter specialists kill to get their tally up?! it's not some kind of game, even if you think it as one. and to accuse them of such a thing is criminal...to accuse them of being killers at heart is far far worse.

Nayak doesnt pretend to be a superman, he does not even like to be called a supercop - that is a name invented by the media, not by himself. and to use your own analogy, right now tirodkar is lex luthor and the ACB is the trio led by general zod. and also, in case you dont remember, these were the bad guys; superman and lois were the good guys...

PunkPrincess said...

Andrenaka, when I say I believe in freedom of speech, I actually mean it. I have been publishing all relevant comments, I only draw the line when I get comments calling Times of India as Toilet paper of India. If I haven't published the comments of your anonymous poster, it is only because I haven't received it.

As for selective publishing to garner sympathy for Daya Nayak, I wouldn't have published any of your comments if that were my aim. Where is your blog anyway? you haven't posted a link.

You really need to read carefully before you post comments accusing me of censorship.

Anonymous said...

HANG HIM!KILL HIM!BUTHCER HIM!
IT APPEARS THAT DAYA NAYAK IS A GREATER THREAT TO THE NATION THAN DAWOOD IBRAHIM HIMSLEF.

C'MON GUYS WAKE UP N SMELL THE COFFEE. WHY THE HELL IS THE ACB AFTER A MAN WHO THEY ACCUSE OF "HAVING" 41 ODD LAKHS MORE THAN HIS INCOME.

THE VERY OFFICERS OF ACB ARE UNDER SCANNER OF CORRUPTION N NOW THEY TRY TO BECOME SAVIORS.

CAN THE ACB PRODUCE A LIST OF OFFICERS THEY HAVE ARRESTED IN THIER ENTIRE HISTORY SINCE THE INCEPTION OF ACB??

WELL, NOW AFTER 10 MERITORIOUS IN SERVICE THEY WNAT TO QUESTION HIS ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS. PITY GUYS WHEN HE WAS GUNNING DOWN CRIMINALS THAT TIME WHERE WERE U.

NOW THAT YUOHAEV OUTLASTED HIS USE, CRUCIFY HIM!

DAYA DO NOT BOW DOEN TO THESE CAHOST OF UNDERWORLD IN THE POLICE FORCE. FIGHT THEM. VICTORY SHALL BE YOURS!

GOD BLESS, AND THE BLESSINGS OF MILLION INDIANS!

Anonymous said...

First of all who the hell is andrenaka. Do you know anything about mafia situation in Mumbai around 1997? I know it. A person can't even buy a new car - a house or have marriage ceremony without paying mafia gangs some HAFTHA money. Daya Nayak has done what was right and asked by senior officers from Home ministry.

How can a trusted media source like Times of India publish article on a good cop without doing research in to the subject? SHAME on them. Similar case was happened when ISRO scientist were accused of spying in to Cryogenic engine technology for some country and media presented good guys (top notch scietists) as bad guys to find out that it was all a big fuss made by Psycho Journalists of a media group.

You were also talking about going to court and stuff like that.. If you were a policeman and booking a criminal under some charge to later find out that he has been acquited by court (corrupted judges), wouldn't you be frustrated? Around 1997, it was the need to do something extreme in fast manner to make mumbai a safer place and that's what Nayak did. I am proud of these policemen.

Who the hell big b*st*rd Tirodkar is? He is a big time b*st*rd and must be shot to death in public, b*st*rd-cum-Anti-national.. S**a h***mi jis des mein peda hua hai uska hi bigadta hai... I wish I had a gun to shoot Tirodkar down when I had an opportunity..

Last thing, Mumbai is safer just because of these brave policemen. Please respect them and support them.

If I had a lot of money then I would have bought stakes in all big indian news & media companies and cleansed them by purging poor quality journalists..

PunkPrincess said...

I request all of you to refrain from abusive language. Or at least use asterisks* in place of full words.

PunkPrincess said...

Thank you for the compliment andrenaka. I'm not sure what you mean by coaching though. This is all research, out there for anyone who bothers to read carefully enough.
As for your "non-individual" viewpoint, let me make one thing clear. This site was made to let people read about the whole story of Daya Nayak, not just the ugly bits and pieces that the media provided on the ACB's prodding. I did not intend to discuss encounters and extra-legal murders as you put it. That just came up because of the comments.
I don't think any court or state has the right to victimize Nayak for doing his job in the past. As per your theory of roundabout justice there are a lot more of these encounter specialists who should also be getting tried in court for some case or the other. But they aren't. Pradeep Sharma even has a higher tally of killings [100+] than Nayak, then by your idea of justice he should be hanged, yes?
This rigmarole with Nayak as the infamous star is a personal vendetta. Except here, personal encompasses a lot of persons. Not just Shakeel or Tirodkar, but even some jealous police officers. Let us not forget that.

If encounter killings are to be punished, then let ALL encounter specialists be punished, alongwith the people who gave them their orders. But this sort of an inquisition against Nayak is highly irregular and extremely unfair, to say the very least.

Anonymous said...

I admire man like daya, these men fight for their country. I would say we need more people like nayak. I think there should be encounter specialists for corruption. That is the only way INDIA will make progress. First of all 41 lackhs is not a lot of money and if he wanted to he would have made 100 corers if he wanted to by selling out to dons. I mean come on is this the kind of price a man gets for being a great citizen and cop to a country, than india has no right to have faithful people like him. What about the people who are currupted, I'm not seeing anyone being punished, i think those people should be hanged.

Anonymous said...

I am an armed force officer with experience of having fought militancy in Kashmir,punjab,Assam,Manipur.I have gone through the real life encounters with the militants and always suffered casualities in each operations bcoz they were real operations and not the cold blooded murders.
I assure my country men if the
ilk's of Daya nayak of Mumbai police and ACP Rajbir singh of Delhi police under go the real life encounters with the militants or the professional gangsters,they will start shitting in their pants,if they are such great shooters just take them to target range or induct them in operations with the forces like BSF,CRPF who are are pitted against militants every day and loose their men in every encounter.
Daya Nayak is nothing but a murderer and all his superiors who promoted him are impotent police officers with the tags of IPS.Each police officer be investigated about his life style and the assests and people would come to know what kind of criminals they are.country men need to wake up against all the injustice and corruption.
These are the killers of the innocents.
I have all my praise for Ketan Tirodkar for having exposed such a murderer
Tirodkar might have shady past but he had courage to expose this murderer.One thing is for sure Tirodkar might not be a murderer.
all the encounters of this crook should be investigated and retribution must come to such a killer.Such killers when face bullets themselves they always wet their pants.
I feel pity on my country men,who just live by chance bcoz such criminals are entrusted with their security

Unknown said...

i am a good frind of nayak.istrongly belive all allegations made on him are baseless and he should be brought back to service at the earliest.

Anonymous said...

i am ashamed that iam a citizen of such a country where person is punished for good job.daya nayak is a
faithful officer and he has been framed for it.all those who oppose him are pure traitors of this country.all i pray that god never again give birth to me in this land ever.

Anonymous said...

I left the country because i have seen capable and honest people like Daya Nayak , TN Sesan suffer.

is there anything we can do to help him. It's really shame to be an indian where Daya Nayak should have been the Police commisioner he is waiting to be sub inspector!!! Things like this discourage me from coming back to country and i really dont see how a country can prosper when it's best people like Daya Nayak are suffering being accused.

Anonymous said...

Aakaash_999

Hi Frns,

ths is Aakaash and I am an advocate i would like to give a gud news to you all(not to ketan tirodkar's supporters).

I have been monitoring the developments with respect to Daya nayak's case. As far as my knowledge goes with respect to practise as an advocate, all the findings by the ACB are baseless and the efficient officer Daya Nayak would come out with a clean chit.

Now it's high time that we start collecting info to send Ketan shirodkar and his like behind the bars.

swaroop said...

@@dear ABHI ABHI ABHI ABHI

DOCTORS dont get killed or are in any sort of harm to their life if operation goes wrong...but POLICE or ARMY are doing their job at the risk of their LIFE ....

Anonymous said...

Daya Sir, My prayers for u..

Anonymous said...

I am very happy about Daya Nayak's acquittal. I have been victimized myself through all these dirty politics in my organization, so it gives me courage and inner strength to see that justice will win in the end.

Anonymous said...

if u clean underword?
so plz leave daya sir

Anonymous said...

We all real Indians know Daya Nayak & his team is cleanest. Whatever they done in their job was awesome & that's why every Indian specially Mumbaikar was sleeping peacefully, enjoying life, playing with kids.
I also requesting by my heart to our good politicians please... get back all these men in Police Force; because we Indians really need them still today & they got Clean Name to reenter.
Daya Nayak & his fellows are Legends...............

saddam said...

i wnt to b lyk daya nayak

saddam said...

n i will b lyk him

sriram manjrekar said...

Dev tumka ani tumgele family aryoghya ani sukh divo Mann taghel kaden prathana karta "Dev boro karu"

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
honey said...


flats near mumbai

Unknown said...

He had never absconded,if u called urself his "fan" u should hv been aware tat he was on OFFICIAL LEAVE...which was informed way earlier than he took it. He was alwaz available whenever needed to ACB. Unnecessary calling an innocent person with tittle such as absconding n stuff is really a shameful act

Unknown said...

Very unhappy to read a comment like this, do u even hv a percent idea of how a great work DN has done, u sleep calmly bcoz their team works, n the encounters he had was a part of his job n was never done on personal basis. Do u even know wat is a cold blooded murder is??? People who caught dead were bcoz there were extremely dangerous for the society and the end for them had to be like this. Super proud of DN now n forever. Think twice before u speak